After a two-hour dangerousness hearing Tuesday afternoon in Clinton District Court, Judge Robert W. Gardner ordered an alleged lighter-fluid robber be held without bail.

Judge Gardner said there are no conditions of release he could demand that could ensure the safety of the suspect’s alleged victims or the community.

Brian J. Dziczek, 32, of 18 Oak St., who had his hair slicked back for the hearing, sat intently listening as the physical evidence and testimony against him were meticulously presented to the court by Assistant District Attorney Tiffany A. Maykel. They included an 8-ounce bottle of Ronson lighter fluid, one-quarter empty; a green Bic lighter; an Army green scarf that he allegedly used to cover his face; a buck knife with 4-inch blade, and more than a dozen white zip ties of the sort, she said, commonly used in crimes to bind victims.

Ms. Maykel argued the state need only show “clear and convincing” evidence Mr. Dziczek was dangerous to the community. She said a “better safe than sorry” rule was more prudent for the court to follow than allowing someone who was “easily manipulated and lacked a moral compass” out on bail.

Public defender John J. Roemer said Mr. Dziczek, a local self-employed barber, doused two store clerks with lighter fluid at the Cumberland Farms Store at 1 Chestnut St. around 10:30 p.m. Jan. 29 in an attempt to get money to protect his twin brother, Eric Dziczek. Mr. Roemer said his client had received a call from a man who told him his twin would be in a “world of hurt” if he didn’t deliver cash. The lawyer did not provide the name of the man nor the amount of cash demanded.

Mr. Dziczek hoped the clerks would panic and give him money, Mr. Roemer said. Instead, the clerks “beat the daylights” out of him and held him down until police arrived, he said.

Ms. Maykel prepared a transcript from an audio recording of Mr. Dziczek’s police interview. In it, Mr. Dziczek, who police said was drunk, said he asked the man to give him a list of things to do and the man replied, “Go down there and squirt lighter fluid on them and they’ll just give you the money.”

Mr. Dziczek told police, “It is totally out of my character. I’ve never done anything like that. You can check my police record. I didn’t want to do it. (He told me) if I suck down vodka I would have the courage to do it. I drink beers. I never drink vodka … He was like, ‘Squirt it on him and they’ll give you the money.’ I didn’t want to do it, but I didn’t want to see my twin brother get shot or (expletive) killed. He said, ‘I need you to do this. I need the money today or tomorrow or your brother is going to be in a world of hurt … something bad is going to happen to your brother.’ That’s my twin brother. I would do anything for him … wish I didn’t do it.”

Ms. Maykel said Mr. Dziczek entered the store with a mission, but instead of the two clerks cowering, they “bravely fought back,” wrestled the knife from him and locked the door to make sure no one else entered the store, despite feeling petrified from being covered in lighter fluid.

A normal response of a person being intimidated for money to protect his brother would be to tell the threatening man he was a professional barber and to ask for time to pay him, Ms. Maykel said.

“Nothing will prevent this man from posing a danger to the community at large,” she said of Mr. Dziczek.

Additionally, Ms. Maykel said, Mr. Dziczek has a history of violence and of showing a lack of respect for human life. She said that when he was 17, Mr. Dziczek was driving and hit a 65-year-old man on Lincoln Street in Worcester and then left the scene, returning only after his father instructed him to. The man died three days later, she said.

Mr. Roemer argued that his client was under duress when he attempted the robbery and admitted to police while under the influence of alcohol that he would do “anything” to help his twin bother. Mr. Dziczek told police, he said, that the man told him to drink vodka so he would have the courage to rob the store.

“He was thinking they would panic and give up easily,” he said. “He didn’t even know if the lighter would work.”

Brian’s father, Henry Dziczek, 65, said during his testimony that Eric returned home the day after the foiled robbery with blood pouring out of one of his ears. He was admitted to the intensive care unit, their father said, for a blow to the head and brain bleeding and was just released Monday morning. Henry Dziczek said his son told him he didn’t know why he had been beaten.

Brian Dziczek is being held on 16 charges, including attempting to burn a building, two counts of armed assault to rob, armed and masked robbery, two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon (a knife), resisting arrest, aggravated assault and battery, aggravated assault, carrying a dangerous weapon (a knife), carrying a dangerous weapon (lighter fluid), two counts of assault to murder, disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace and attempting to commit a crime (kidnapping).

A probable cause hearing is scheduled for March 1 in Clinton District Court.

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